About Us

About Russo’s Coal-Fired Italian Kitchen

With our Coal-Fired Italian Kitchen venues, we’ve taken our award-winning Russo’s New York-style pizzeria and expanded the concept in every way, for a more upscale, sit-down ristorante atmosphere. Coal firing adds a level of authenticity to everything we cook – temperatures in our brick ovens approach 1,000 degrees, to impart a lighter, crispier quality to our pizza crust, in keeping with the modern taste for a lower-carb cuisine, yet without sacrificing flavor or savor.

Our signature Russo’s formula is the same — the freshest, premium ingredients, our time-tested traditional family recipes, the sense of Old World charm and hospitality – but here in a more convivial setting and with a gourmet edge. A wine bar and a selection of craft beers complete the dining experience, lending it more of an at-home feel.

As a first-generation Italian, Chef Anthony Russo oversees everything with care, to honor his national heritage of family gathered together for a heart-warming meal. Pizza and pasta are the soul food of Italy, rooted in the southern European countryside and the pride that every cook takes in the personal touch that crowns every dish we serve.

Find out how we set ourselves apart from other Italian restaurant chains. We’re extending you a personal invitation to join us at Chef Russo’s table. Let us share with you our food and our passion for outstanding satisfaction.Our Coal-Fired restaurant locations continue to open nationwide, from Florida to Hawaii, as word spreads about our excellent, authentic Italian cooking, catering to the modern sensibility at an affordable price.

History hovers in the air at Russo’s Coal-Fired restaurants and resonates in the hospitality that the country is famous for. History, and destiny — the Russo’s empire is always expanding, while staying true to its roots and the strength of its family promise: “If it isn’t fresh, don’t serve it.”

There’s more to Italian cooking than pizza, and at Russo’s Coal-Fired restaurants we explore the roots of Old World family dining, its ambience and its essentials. Coal-firing is a centuries-older way of baking, predating electric ovens; it’s hotter and less uniform, resulting in a quicker baking time and a lighter, flakier, crispier crust.

With baking temperatures nearing 1,000 degrees, there’s some inevitable superficial charring, but the taste isn’t bitter or burnt, instead adding a smoky quality to the flavor.

Our Coal-Fired restaurants offer home-style specialties, cooked specifically for you, not packaged or pre-fab. We make every effort to recreate this ristorante feeling of Italian cooking in its natural environment, with time-tested recipes, garden-fresh vegetables, pasta that isn’t dried, cheeses that aren’t processed. It’s the kind of cooking we love to do for each other, with care and a certain brio, because we have great confidence in our kitchens to bring pleasure to every plate, and to every palate. This is how Italians really eat, away from the tourist fashion fast food circus.

Let us demonstrate the reality of Italian dining. Join us for a plate of pasta or seafood, plus a perfect wine or craft beer to complement it. Sometimes even light musical entertainment – performed live, of course, not pre-recorded – to set the stage for you, in a comfortable décor that dates back to a more gracious sense of occasion. A more European approach, the Europe of decades ago, before international conglomerates gobbled up the market. The feeling of being welcomed and catered to.

There’s a certain elegance here, the everyday elegance of Italian life. An honesty, and an artistry. Come share it with us.

From Naples and Sicily, the Russo family brought their Old World traditions to New Jersey and then Galveston, and like all good Italian ragazzi, Anthony Russo perfected the fine art of spinning pizza dough into culinary gold.

Growing up in a restaurant, Anthony naturally developed a passion for authentic Italian cooking, as a calling and as a business.

In traditional Italian families, some of life’s greatest joys take place around the table. Italians understand the magic created when the joys of conversation and intimacy mingle with the pleasures of beautiful food and drink.

Relatives from the old country visited the Russo family every summer, and Anthony learned recipes and time-honored methods, like rolling dough around a broomstick to form perfect cannoli shells.